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Both a fascinating neurological case study and harrowing suspense novel in one!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

You might think there‘s nothing funny about the Apocalypse. Turns out, it‘s hilarious!

A philosophical discourse disguised as a quirky satire.

Full GoodReads Review ⤵️
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3142559692

Can‘t wait to watch the series on Prime. Has anyone else already watched it? Thoughts?

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You know that feeling when you‘re reading and you get so lost in the story that you forgot you were reading a book? The mental imagery projected so clearly in your minds eye that when you take a break and look up you‘ve forgotten you exist in this reality?

This is that book.

Full GoodReads Review ⤵️
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41940236

#mystery #thriller #crime #serialkiller

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A spooky slow burn with a haunting and very trippy atmosphere. Perfect for October.

Full GoodReads Review ⤵️
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3576095966

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Is September too early for spooky season? If it is, I don‘t care. We‘re off to a great start.

WHAT A RIDE, FOLKS.
Equal parts sexy and spine-chilling.
Simultaneously hot and nauseatingly disturbing.
I didn‘t know those two things paired so well together until now.

P.S. I also didn‘t know a book could give you jump scares until now.

#suspense #thriller #horror #romance

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I thought the premise of this book was interesting! However, the book didn‘t really pick up until 3/4 of the way through, and so I struggled to finish it. It flips between 3 narrators, and I just didn‘t feel that each character had their own distinct voice - enough to make the story feel compelling, anyway.

All that said, I did enjoy plot twist and the ending!

#historicalfiction #contemporaryfiction

Here‘s your friendly reminder for the week that putting your own needs first and setting boundaries does not make you selfish. 🙅🏻‍♀️It makes you self aware.

#selfhelp #anxiety

#medicine #healthcare #healing #memoir

🌱🌿 Loving this book!

#medicine #healthcare #healing #memoir

And between a physician and her patient ❤️

#memoir #medicine #healthcare #healing

#memoir #medicine #healing

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“…after letting go, there is forgiveness; after forgiveness, there is faith. My key now was a radical alignment with truth, a radical faith that in leaning into love and letting go of everything else, the path unfolds as it should.”

Full GoodReads Review ⤵️
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3828019736

#memoir #medicine #healing

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One minute a great adventure story, the next a sobering and cautionary tale of environmental degradation/climate change, income inequality/class division, and the ever present threat of a new pandemic.
This book fuses modern science and ancient mythology.
Engaging read!

#naturalhistory #travel #adventure #jungle #rainforest #archeology

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Full GoodReads Review ⤵️
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23174274

#youngadult #dystopian

(Not my photo)

I have tried to read this book twice, and bailed both times.
I just wish this book took more of a narrative/storytelling approach. Felt a little like the genealogy accounts in the Bible if I‘m being honest (so and so accused so and so accused so and so). Very hard to keep track of it all in my head.
Think I‘ll stick to the podcast I‘m listening to now instead to learn about the Witch Trials: Unobscured. Check it out!

#history #salemwitchtrials

I should preface by saying that I don‘t read much poetry. I am just getting into it.
With that being said, I felt that most of these poems were just out of my reach. The rhythm was palpable and the language beautiful - and although I caught some meanings here and there, I mostly felt like I was always missing something? Overall I didn‘t find the poems to be easily digestible.
I hope to take another stab at this down the road someday!

#poetry

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The writing style wasn‘t my favorite but once the plot picked up after a few chapters I was hooked.
I found the concept of the Red/Silver divide interesting and appreciated the plot twist at the end. Definitely kept me on my toes the last few chapters.
Looking forward to the rest of the series.

(Not my photo)

#youngadult #dystopian

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“Maybe it was because she was born to me and she was born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way.”

Full GoodReads Review⤵️
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3130836247

#contemporaryfiction #familysaga #asianlit #china #chineseculture

Man... I really wanted to like this book. It‘s taken me over a month to get halfway through it. It‘s time to put it away.
I did enjoy the first, titular essay. But everything after that fell flat for me and it started to all feel like a stretch.

#essaycollection #essays

#poetry #heart

#poetry

#poetry #horses

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I‘m still new to poetry, but damn did this collection move me.

Her writing is very approachable and easy to digest.
Many lines from her poems are still echoing around inside my head.
I‘ll definitely be keeping this book at my bedside.

Also how beautiful is the cover art?!

#poetry

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Themes of patriarchy and oppression, the cost of freedom and the power of words.

A dystopian present novel paced like a thriller, Christina Dalcher‘s debut is a cautionary tale about how quickly the world around us can change while we‘re not paying enough attention. The plot is plausibly uncomfortable, but an absolute page-turner nonetheless. Kept my heart racing - both from blood-boiling fury and chilling suspense.

#thriller

EEEK! Stoked for my Blind Date with a Book!

Themes of:
- Patriarchy
- Oppression
- The cost of freedom
- The power of words

“Intelligent, suspenseful, provocative, and intensely disturbing - everything a great novel should be.”
- Lee Child, NYT Best Selling Author

Any guesses?!?!

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“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter...”

Poetic storytelling! An all-time favorite.

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This collection is so sweet.
One minute he has you reveling in the warmth of the sun and the simple beauties of nature, and the next minute... you‘re crying? (Wait... how did that happen?!) Life = loss, but ultimately loss is still inextricably linked to abundant joy.
Oozing with love and admiration of nature, his poems juxtapose deep sorrow and grief with beauty and thankfulness.

Favorite Poem: Burial

Perfect mid-winter pick me up!

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Again, a few pieces I bookmarked but overall I feel lukewarm about this collection.

#poetry

⭐️⭐️⭐️

There were several pieces that I enjoyed.
Still not sure how I feel about her work overall though.

#poetry

Sharing a few of my favorite pieces from this collection - part 3

the next time you
have your coffee black
you‘ll taste the bitter
state he left you in
it will make you weep
but you‘ll never
stop drinking
you‘d rather have the
darkest parts of him
than have nothing

#poetry

Sharing a few of my favorite pieces from this collection - part 2

#poetry

Sharing a few of my favorite pieces from this collection - part 1

#poetry

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I‘m no poetry connoisseur but...

It was a bit simplistic at times - which in a way is nice - but it also didn't really elicit any strong emotions in me, which like? Isn't that the point of poetry?
Some pieces really resonated with me - and i did enjoy a select few poems - but I didn't feel particularly moved?

#poetry

I may be single but I have plenty of dates lined up this month 😏 including a blind date with a book! And some new poetry I‘m excited to check out.

Happy early Valentines Day to me! ❤️🌹

#valentines

#poetry

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IM NOT CRYING YOU‘RE CRYING.

I forgot how much I loved this book.
Razor-sharp.
At once a sweet love story and a meditation on the bigger questions about life and death, and everything in between.

#youngadult #Amsterdam #cancer

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The real feats of illusion lie within the pages of this book.

#magicalrealism #fantasy #circus #magic

Full GoodReads Review ⬇️
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701584030

(Not my photo).

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“There is no salvation in time. You cannot be free in the future. Presence is the key to freedom, so you can only be free now.”

Full GoodReads Review ⬇️:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3082218189

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“It is so easy...to imagine that times of sadness or tragedy or failure or fear are a result of [your] particular existence. That it is a by-product of living a certain way, rather than simply living.”

A quaint and pleasant read!

GoodReads Review ⬇️
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3635235310

(Not my photo)

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“There is always a way out of a situation. Might be ugly. Might leave you feeling like the earth had gone and shifted under your feet. But there is always a way around.”

Set in Depression-era America and based on the true story of the traveling packhorse library in eastern Kentucky, this is an ode to compassion, independence, and resilience - and a tribute to the power of libraries and literacy, and strong, solid female friendships.

Reached my goal of reading 25 books this year!!! 🤗
I know some of you breeze through WAY more than that, but I swear I haven‘t read this many books since... elementary/middle school? I‘ve spent the last decade or so with my nose in textbooks, so it‘s sooo refreshing to read for FUN again.
When I look back at how BUSY 2020 has been for me (working 50+ hour weeks in a pandemic, taking care of my fur baby) I‘m proud I made it through this many!

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“‘Who can doubt the presence of God in the sight of men whom He has given wings?‘ I recall that so precisely because I‘ve had time to consider my error... God didn‘t give man wings; He gave him the brain and the spirit to give himself wings. Just as He gave us the capacity to laugh when we hurt, or to struggle on when we feel like giving up.”

Full GoodReads Review ⬇️
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3142571931

I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE

“‘It was a bright, clear day. The sky above us was blue and forever, and I looked up at it and thought: ‘Aouli.‘ Blue vault of heaven.‘”

Started a new book.
Bulldozing my way through this one.
Any guesses on what it is? 😉 Here‘s a small snippet of the cover as a clue.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Started it for the spooks, stayed for the:

Historical Fiction ✔️
Gothic Lit ✔️
Fall Vibes ✔️
Haunted House ✔️
Ghosts ✔️
Witches ✔️
Scandals ✔️
Romance ✔️
Plot Twists ✔️

An absolute page turner. Couldn‘t put it down.
Still waiting on my John Barrett, though. *sigh*.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2020 Reading Challenge
15. A Book by an Author You Love

“Be brave enough to break your own heart.”
- Sugar (Cheryl Strayed), Tiny Beautiful Things

GoodReads Review Below:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3130854516

“...And it will be your salvation too, my dear. When you reach the place that you recognize entirely that you will thrive not in spite of your losses and sorrows, but because of them.”
- Sugar (Cheryl Strayed), Tiny Beautiful Things

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2020 Reading Challenge
14. A Book with a Color in the Title

It‘s not so much that the house is haunted as much as it is alive...

•An altogether eerie and unsettling atmosphere (Hello, Poe).
•Prose so poetic it borders on lyrical.
•Bewitched from page one.

Helen Oyeyemi knows that ghost stories aren‘t just for kids.

A day late (in true Kayla fashion) but nonetheless...

1. A friend and I are making a weekend trek to Boston and Salem, MA. I‘m SO excited! This is the first time in my adult life I‘m celebrating Halloween.

2. Had the chance to catch up with a good friend this week over dinner. She asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding and I am beyond honored! Thankful for a lifelong friendship!

#ThankfulThursday